The Guam National Guard will help the Republic of Palau prepare for and respond to future disasters, with a formal state partnership signed by both governments on Monday.
In a historic ceremony at the Ngarachamayong Cultural Center in downtown Koror, Palau President Surangel Whipps, Jr., Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, and Col. Michael Cruz, adjutant general of the Guam National Guard, signed a declaration formalizing the nation’s newest state partnership between Guam and the Republic of Palau.
Witnessing the ceremony were Senior Enlisted Advisor Tony Whitehead, senior enlisted advisor to the chief of National Guard Bureau, U.S. Ambassador Joel Ehrendreich, Palau Vice President J. Uduch S. Senior, and members of the Palau National Congress and Council of Chiefs, a release from the Guam National Guard states.
The U.S. has been making efforts to strengthen security ties with Palau and other strategically important nations across Micronesia amid Chinese efforts to influence the region and tensions over Taiwan.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Palau President Whipps appeared on Palauan state media this week to announce the partnership, sitting alongside Cruz, Whitehead, and Ambassador Ehrendreich.
“We are stronger together is what I like to say, and that’s really what this partnership is about,” Whipps said during the broadcast.
The president, who is running for re-election this year, said the partnership will help to ensure a “free and open Indo-Pacific” and help Palau and Guam to “be prosperous and live in peace.”
According to Leon Guerrero, the partnership has been in talks for about three years now, with her envisioning Palau as the first of other nations in Micronesia that Guam could make similar partnerships with.
It made sense given the proximity of the islands and their shared history, she said.
National Guard advisor Whitehead said the security partnership is not just about military involvement.
“We talk about things like law enforcement, working with the hospitals, working with the infrastructure of the cities,” Whitehead said.
Guam already has similar partnerships with the Philippines and Hawaii, Cruz said.
Managed by National Guard Bureau and executed with Combatant Commanders, the State Partnership Program develops enduring relationships, improves interoperability, and enhances the readiness of the U.S. and partner nations to meet emerging challenges together, the release states.
The program has been successfully building relations for 30 years and includes over 100 nations around the globe. This year, the National Guard Bureau selected the Guam Guard to partner with Palau.
The agreement comes on the heels of the renewal of the Compacts of Free Association between Palau and the U.S.
Palau has no regular military forces, and the U.S. takes responsibility for the defense of the islands throughout the COFA agreements, and gets access to the islands.
U.S. Ambassador Ehrendreich Monday stressed that “the importance, the significance of Palau’s geostrategic positioning, I think is really starting to come into focus.”
Guam, Palau, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands were closer to “regional tensions” than other islands in the area, Ehrendreich said.
He said the U.S. Embassy in Palau will be working to coordinate the needs of Palau for training, and to figure out how the Guam Guard will be involved in disaster response.
“It won’t just be about the National Guard when it comes to the protection of Palau,” Whitehead stressed. “In this Indo-Pacific region, we’ve got the total armed forces that are here through Hawaii, and you know, spearheading what happens here. So it won’t be a plan that’s going to be in place just for Guam and Palau. It’ll be about protecting the entire Indo Pacific region.”
Leon Guerrero agreed that diplomacy is what’s desired in the region.
But she added, “you cannot turn a blind eye to say ‘we will not bring in the Missile Defense Agency, agencies will not have a presence in Palau, we will not encourage and work with our Pacific islands to be part of these preparations.’”
Asked by Palauan state media about the impact of military defense on Guam and Palau, Leon Guerrero said, “I don’t experience a negative militarization in Guam. I do not. There are federal rules and federal laws that the U.S. has to follow. And they follow it very stringently … the United States, the military, at least in my administration, has shown that kind of sensitivity to the culture and to the people.”
Whipps said the partnership was not about “escalating” tension or creating more risk, but deterring aggression.
People might say, “the police officers shouldn’t have guns,” Whipps said. “Well, the gun is not for them to shoot everybody. The guns are there to make sure that we can maintain peace in order.”
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